ii8 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



Their moral code inculcates other things besides 

 temperance — the ten commandments, for instance. 

 No one will maintain that Jews are as con- 

 spicuously superior in morals in general — for in- 

 stance, in sexual and commercial morality — as they 

 are with respect to temperance. If, then, Jews are 

 so teachable as to be temperate through teaching, 

 their moral teaching in other respects evidently 

 must be conspicuously lax. Consider, besides, the 

 miserable Jews of the East End of London. No 

 one will maintain that their environment, their 

 education, is particularly conducive to habits of 

 temperance, yet temperate these Jews are, and to 

 a very remarkable degree. 



It must be borne in mind that indulgence in 

 alcohol produces a particular feeling, a sensation, 

 sui generis. No amount of education, no sort or 

 kind of education, can convert a pleasant sensation 

 into an unpleasant one. Education cannot change 

 a liking for salt, or sugar, or tobacco, or sexual 

 indulgence, or alcohol, into a dislike for the 

 same thing. Education may induce a moral 

 abhorrence ; but the pleasantness of the sensation 

 remains unchanged. Notwithstanding all moral 

 teachings the Hindoo remains capable of 

 enjoying beef, the Mahomedans of enjoying 

 pork, the Buddhist of enjoying animal food, 

 the monk or nun of enjoying sexual love. 



